Beware of minor spoilers for Narcos Season 3 from here on out, but the September finale made reasonably clear the story would shift to Mexico, following the Cali Cartel’s destruction in Colombia. It wasn’t likely that Pascal’s Javier Peña would jump right into another cartel war (Season 3 already stretched the real Peña’s involvement), but a Hollywood Reporter interview with showrunner Eric Newman reveals that Season 4 will also shift time periods in a way that precludes Pascal’s involvement:

The origins of the Guadalajara cartel are in the late 1970s and early 1980s … The Guadalajara cartel was a force in the 1980s, concurrent with the Colombian cartels. So we will ostensibly be going back in time a little bit. The Mexican cartels started with marijuana and heroin and then got into cocaine, which they acquired from the Colombians. We see a little bit of that in season three with the character of Amado Carrillo Fuentes (aka Lord of the Skies) and his Juarez cartel. But reports that we would focus on Juarez in season four were inaccurate.

Notions of Season 4 following the Juarez cartel emerged with September word that location scout Carlos Muñoz Portal had tragically been shot to death in Mexico. Newman naturally declined to discuss specifics of that investigation, but noted that the killing was most likely random, and that they’d taken additional security precautions to shoot in Mexico.

As to Pascal’s character, Newman would only say of Season 4 that “I’m confirming that it’s not about him.” There’s always the chance Season 4 catches up to the original ‘90s setting, or that future seasons check in on past characters (Newman believes Narcos will go beyond a fourth year), so stay tuned for more details on the 2018 season as they arrive.